Guess what made the "Top 10 Historically Inaccurate Films" list?

[beloitpiper]

I just saw that before I popped back here. I had the same reaction the first time I saw a trailer for that new caveman (yes I will use that term) movie. Some one, somewhere, please make a historical movie that is accurate....please.
Sara

Some of us archaeology students went to go see that movie. EVERYTHING in that movie was wrong. We couldn't stop laughing! The other people in the theater must have hated us... I mean, come on!
-The earliest pyramids were not built until 2,500 BCE
-In the movie, there are no stone tools whatsoever
-They use LOCKS and KEYS
-Mammoths were EXTINCT before 10,000 BCE
-The sail boats in the movie, the way their sails were arranged, would've just spun like a top
-The people in the movie use advanced iron tools, but the Iron Age begins around 1,200 BCE
-Every tribe in that movie was multi-ethnic, which would've been very wrong
-The giant birds they were attacked by were probably Phorusrhacidae, which lived in South America around Cenozoic Era
-And why does the old medicine woman sleep with her jewelery on?

As far as pyramids being around 10,000 years ago. Read some of Graham Hancock's books. He puts up a very interesting argument for the pyramids to be much older then excepted history.

That is cute, but Graham Hancock is a writer. His theories have been shot down more times than I can count, and although he is entertaining, every archaeologist I know can list the ways he alters "evidence" and invents facts.

[Coemgen]

Some of us archaeology students went to go see that movie. EVERYTHING in that movie was wrong. We couldn't stop laughing! The other people in the theater must have hated us... I mean, come on!
-The earliest pyramids were not built until 2,500 BCE
-In the movie, there are no stone tools whatsoever
-They use LOCKS and KEYS
-Mammoths were EXTINCT before 10,000 BCE
-The sail boats in the movie, the way their sails were arranged, would've just spun like a top
-The people in the movie use advanced iron tools, but the Iron Age begins around 1,200 BCE
-Every tribe in that movie was multi-ethnic, which would've been very wrong
-The giant birds they were attacked by were probably Phorusrhacidae, which lived in South America around Cenozoic Era
-And why does the old medicine woman sleep with her jewelery on?



That is cute, but Graham Hancock is a writer. His theories have been shot down more times than I can count, and although he is entertaining, every archaeologist I know can list the ways he alters "evidence" and invents facts.

But it's so obvious!

The aliens who built the pyramids sped up human technology to make them and resurrected the mammoths to help! But when the slaves revolted, the aliens destroyed everything, sending mankind back to the stone age, and killed the mammoths, and erased peoples memories!

They just came back in 2,500 B. C. to build the pyramids again, allowing the aliens to create images that would mind-control King Solomon when the Queen of Sheeba visited him, causing him start the freemasons. The masons were then used by the aliens take over the world as part of a cabal with the trans-dimensional lizard people who live beneath Los Angeles!

The crash at Roswel was obviously part of the master plan, because it allowed them to take over the American Government! It all makes sense now!

[Sheep In Wolf's Clothing]

Some of us archaeology students went to go see that movie. EVERYTHING in that movie was wrong. We couldn't stop laughing! The other people in the theater must have hated us... I mean, come on!
-The earliest pyramids were not built until 2,500 BCE
-In the movie, there are no stone tools whatsoever
-They use LOCKS and KEYS
-Mammoths were EXTINCT before 10,000 BCE
-The sail boats in the movie, the way their sails were arranged, would've just spun like a top
-The people in the movie use advanced iron tools, but the Iron Age begins around 1,200 BCE
-Every tribe in that movie was multi-ethnic, which would've been very wrong
-The giant birds they were attacked by were probably Phorusrhacidae, which lived in South America around Cenozoic Era
-And why does the old medicine woman sleep with her jewelery on?



That is cute, but Graham Hancock is a writer. His theories have been shot down more times than I can count, and although he is entertaining, every archaeologist I know can list the ways he alters "evidence" and invents facts.

I have a friend’s wife who will no longer watch any historical movie with me. Even the trailer made me shudder.. Pyramids and Mammoths.. really?
Sara
Who wishes she had more friends like Greg's

[Nighthawk]

As far as pyramids being around 10,000 years ago. Read some of Graham Hancock's books. He puts up a very interesting argument for the pyramids to be much older then excepted history.

...but does he argue that they used wooley mammoths to build them?

I guess that's why they call it entertainment. Doesn't have to be historically accurate to generate box office sales. And if it was historically correct it probably wouldn't be exciting.

What?!?! Have you actually read about the battle of Stirling Bridge? Or the battle of Gettysburg? In fact, watch Gettysburg! It was very accurate- and exciting!

[macwilkin]

What?!?! Have you actually read about the battle of Stirling Bridge? Or the battle of Gettysburg? In fact, watch Gettysburg! It was very accurate- and exciting!

How much time do you have? Gettysburg had its moments, good and bad.

T.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

How much time do you have? Gettysburg had its moments, good and bad.

T.

Is that the one where Martin Sheen, dressed up like Robert E. Lee, did his impression of a talking Moon Pie?

[elrond]

Filmakers and directors are surely much more interested in the money they can earn from the emotions that people can feel looking at the "wrong fact" than in the reality of the fact itself.
It is evident that some scots dressed with trousers or other garments than the great kilts would have been more real, but surely less appealing for the "cinema fans"....

I think that sometimes we have to realize that accuracy and truth are characteristics that are no good for cinema, that is however always a "fiction"...

[macwilkin]

I think that sometimes we have to realize that accuracy and truth are characteristics that are no good for cinema, that is however always a "fiction"...

Again, I disagree. There are a number of movies who achieved a happy medium between historical accuracy & ripping yarns. I've already mentioned several in my previous posts.

I happened to be watching "Hoosiers" last night -- I'm not much of a basketball fan, but I love the movie for its story and the fact that it reminds my mom of her childhood in Iowa. The movie is based on the 1954 Milan, Indiana High School basketball team that won the state championships. Obviously, Hollywood fictionalized much of the story to give it drama -- but there were a number of accurate details, and several of the real players endorsed the movie in giving a good glimpse of life in 1950s Indiana -- at least one even appears in the movie!

T.

[Nighthawk]

So what that list is saying is that ol' Mel needs to get himself into a high school history class before he writes another movie... He dominated that list!

[mddock58]

In "The Patriot" the main character was a composite of three different people of which Francis Marion, was the main influence. This is mentioned in the documentary on making the movie. The character of Tarrington, was also a composite. The filmmakers were trying to give the FICTIONAL story historic accuracy (at least to some degree).